[[!comment format=mdwn
 username="smcv"
 subject="comment 2"
 date="2015-03-01T15:13:08Z"
 content="""
>     ikiwiki --setup $setupfile
> 
> Didn't work as expected, rebuilt the whole wiki.

The default action is to rebuild if `--setup` is used, or refresh otherwise.

>     ikiwiki -setup -refresh $setupfile
> 
> Output was:
> 
>     cannot read -refresh: No such file or directory

Well, no, you told ikiwiki to use a setup file named `-refresh`. That's not
going to work, unless you happen to have such a file. The man page does say

>        --setup setupfile

implying that an argument is expected and required. Either of these would be OK,
for instance:

    ikiwiki -refresh -setup setupfile
    ikiwiki --setup setupfile --refresh

> 2.a) It is the only place where *-setup* is used. the error output and the manpage use *--setup*  

Perl's command-line parser accepts either.

> 3.) The file with the basic settings for the installation procedure is referred to as \"setup\" file. And so are the files with the settings for a particular wiki.

That's because the one used for the auto-installation (which is not mandatory: you can
write the entire setup file yourself if you prefer, like ikiwiki-hosting does) is a
special case of the one used for a configured wiki./

> And maybe it would be possible to update a wiki if the program is called with only a config file as parameter.

ikiwiki needs either:

* two non-option arguments, a srcdir *and* a destdir (and probably lots of other options
  in practice); or

* a setup file (which can specify most things supported by the command line) and
  no non-option arguments

Both ways are meant to work; the srcdir/destdir syntax is for very simple 
cases (e.g. building static documentation) and the setup file is for
more complicated cases (entire websites).

Treating two non-option arguments as srcdir/destdir, but a single
non-option argument as a setup file, seems more confusing to me
than the current situation.
"""]]